Just in time for Donald Trump's deadline to pass the legislation before Independence Day, the House of Representatives has given the green light to the administration's $3.4 trillion tax package. The bill, which now only needs the US president's signature, makes permanent tax breaks introduced during the Republican's first term, while cutting taxes, cutting subsidies and reversing much of Joe Biden's work to green the country's economy.

The legislative package passed the Senate's lower house by a narrow margin for the second time. Just four votes separated approval from rejection, with Republicans delaying the final vote for several hours to convince a small group of lawmakers to vote in favor of the bill. Over the past few weeks, the President himself has had to intervene several times with his party to ensure approval, with several elements"sounding the alarm" about cuts to Medicaid - the US social health program for low-income families.

"[This legislation] is about restoring sanity to a land that had lost it by cutting waste and reining in reckless spending," said Jason Smith, chairman of the U.S. Congressional fiscal policy committee."It requires that anyone who can work, must work. The country will no longer ask working families to foot the bill for Washington's bad decisions," Smith concluded in statements after the bill was approved.

On the other side of the fence, criticism has been fierce, with Democrats accusing Trump of cutting Medicaid for millions of people to fund tax cuts and tax breaks for the wealthy."This legislation will end Medicaid as we know it. It will close hospitals and nursing homes - all to give benefits to those who already have them," said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries in a speech that lasted more than eight hours and broke the record for the longest speech in that legislative body.

The non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that this mega-package will increase the US deficit by more than $3.4 trillion over the next decade. The health of the country's public finances has been increasingly a concern for markets, especially after the financial agency Moody's withdrew the maximum rating of the US due to the rise in public debt, citing the deterioration of budgetary indicators and the growth of public debt.